The Beginning Of Closure
by Immi-in-the-TARDIS
Summary: Post!Doomsday. Rose remains in the alt!universe, and she's going to move on. It's just a different way from that which the Doctor expected. Characters: Rose, Jack, Pete, Jackie, Ten, Jess and Alfie. Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me, except Jess and Alfie


**A/N: Thanks to my beta on LJ - brunettejedi - and wendymr for giving me some lovely feedback. This was well received over there, so I'm posting here for a response. Comments are love, concrit is welcomed, and flames will be sent to orbit 134340 (that's Pluto, by the way).**

"I love you."

"Quite right too. And I suppose, if it's my last chance to say it… Rose Tyler-"

II

Monday The Fourteenth Of May, Three Days After… Then.

Rose had never been one for keeping diaries – there used to be too much chance of Jackie finding them, and her rampages about her nagging and moaning about her "airs and graces", or worse, Mickey finding them and reading about Rose's annoyance at his _normality_.

Most of all, she wanted to talk to the Doctor, but he'd closed the brief connection they'd shared through her dream, knowing full well what would happen if he left it open. They both needed to move on, and psychic links weren't exactly the most helpful way of doing so. Jackie was useful to go to with some things; Mickey, others, and she realised just how much easier life could be at times with a father around, however different to her real one he happened to be. But Mickey and Jackie and Pete, try as they would, couldn't understand the tug-of-war Rose was undergoing.

Therefore, Rose intended the diary to absorb what she felt, and leave her with the simple job of continuing her life.

Rose had spent three days replaying one in her head, repeatedly. She wanted to know what he was had been about to say. She'd known what he was going to say, a selfish part of her argued, but it would have been nice to hear it anyway. Time was cut short. How ironic.

She slept with the same amount of pain as she had done for a couple of nights that night. Maybe the diary would work in time.

II

Friday The Eighteenth, A Week.

"Three and a half months," Rose wrote that evening, lying on her bed, "and I suppose it feels a bit easier. It's still strange to wake up, leave my room, wander through the door opposite and not see him flicking switches and hopping around. And I still don't feel my usual morning grin just yet." Rose sighed, and rolled over, thinking what to put next. Unsure, she shut the book and buried her face in the pillow. She didn't intend to sleep, but it washed over her, and she settled down, not hearing a gentle knock an hour or so later at her bedroom door.

"Rose, love?" Jackie whispered, popping her head round the door. "Rose, your dinner's ready if you're a bit hungry… Ah. Okay, then. We'll keep it warm in case you wake up in a while." She stepped inside her daughter's room and pulled the duvet up over Rose. She turned off the radio that was playing quietly in the corner, switched off the light and closed the door softly behind her.

II

Thursday The Thirty-First, Twenty Days.  


When Rose returned home from work that evening, she flopped onto the settee with a mug of tea, and picked up a magazine that she wasn't really reading, because she didn't really read them anyway, not when work was over and Rose had time to think _properly_.

She was about to pick up her diary instead when a voice floated to the front of Rose's mind. Confused, as she usually had control of her own brain, she thought and listened.

_Rose.  
_

_Doctor? Doctor is that you?_ She thought.

_I wanted to just watch you for a while, see how you were getting on.  
_

_Oh.  
_

_I wasn't going to let you know that I was here.  
_

_Why?  
_

_It's a bad idea, me being here. I should be letting you move on without interrupting you.  
_

_I'm trying. I miss you, Doctor.  
_

_I know you do. I miss you as well, but it's time to let go.  
_

_I can't "let go". Have you?  
_

_No.  
_

_Well then, why should I?  
_

_I never let go. I just move on, because I have to. I told you that. You have to, as well. Trust me. Keep listening. I have to go in a minute; Martha's giving me a strange look, I've been silent too long. But Rose, If you want to remember me, you can do one thing, that's all, one thing. Have a fantastic life. Do that for me, Rose. Have a fantastic life.  
_

His voice faded.

_Doctor?  
_

Silence.

_Doctor…?  
_

That evening, Rose couldn't remember feeling any more child-like as she sat wrapped in her mother's arms thinking, whilst feeling her baby sibling kick. And that night, she made a final decision.

II

Monday The Third of June, No Longer Counting.  


Having had the Friday off, Rose woke up on the Monday morning for work at seven thirty, as usual. She switched off her alarm, sat up, swung her legs out of bed, got dressed, kissed her mother goodbye and left down the stairs and in her car for the London branch of Torchwood. Entering the building with a broad smile to contradict the crispness of her sharp suit, she greeted the visitors in the waiting area and waved a hello to the receptionist.

"Oh, Miss Tyler, glad I caught you, have you got a moment?"

"For you, anything, Gwen."

"Oh. You seem rather upbeat this morning."

"Yeah, call it… the beginning of closure."

"Oh. Um, right. Well, I just wanted to let you know that Yvonne's left you a couple of cases of um…" Gwen rifled through her papers, "Andrea's behind. She's been a bit overloaded lately, and said you could do with some extra." Rose sighed heavily. "It is Andrea, isn't it?"

"Yes, I believe so. Thanks, Gwen."

"Not a problem, Miss Tyler."

"Rose."

"Oh, okay, um, Rose." Gwen smiled. Rose grinned back and went to call the lift. She stopped abruptly.

"New start, clean slate. Take the stairs." She muttered to herself.

At home, the diary stopped being a place to mourn her loss of the Doctor, and instead, became a day-to-day record of life as she knew it, that included _remembering_ the Doctor, and the progress of her mother and father's baby - her little brother or sister – she had to face it, she was immensely excited.

II

Monday The Twenty-Fifth, Christmas Day

This day was the first Christmas here. There was one Jackie, one Pete, one Mickey, one Jake, one Rose and a one-and-a-half-month-old little sister round the tree in the Tylers' living room. On Saturday the 11th of November, Jackie had given birth to Jessica Eve, or Jet to Jake and Mickey, and it had been smiles all-round in the delivery room. Rose could not have been more delighted as she was passed her baby sister and had only allowed herself a fleeting thought of what it might have been like holding hers and the Doctor's baby instead of her sister. That was clinging onto might-have-beens and she wasn't going to do it any more.

"Who's having a present?" Pete piped up after lunch, head stuck under the tree. Jess gurgled.

"Hey, you," Mickey laughed, "Wait your turn."

"Rose, you go first." Jackie said.

"Right, okay. Um, Dad, pass me that one." She replied, pointing at a flat, square-shaped present, wrapped in shiny Christmas-tree paper.

"That's from me and Mickey." Jackie told her, quietly.

"Thanks." Rose smiled across the room, and began to open the present.

"Just rip it!" Jake complained from the settee, where he was leaning against Mickey. Rose shot him a grin, and tore the paper off. She'd opened it upside-down and turned it over carefully.

"Oh, Mum…"

"I know that you're moving on, making your life work without him, but I also know that you won't ever forget him. I didn't suppose you'd had chance to take many pictures while you were getting in all that trouble."

"Didn't think I'd ever need 'em."

"No, well… You've changed so much since May, you've become a right sophisticated madam, you wouldn't believe how proud of you I am and I knew how strange and tough this Christmas would be for you, compared to last. Mick took it back then for me for the album, but you need it more than I do. Now, you can keep it in the frame and keep it in your room, or put it on the mantelpiece in here, or stick it in your di-"

"Mum."

"What?"

"You're rambling." Jackie laughed slightly. "But thank you. Thank you so much." Rose leant over the wrapping paper on the floor to hug her, and then to the settee to hug Mickey. As she sat back down, she plucked Jess out of her seat to hold her, and a small tear escaped and landed on Jess's forehead. Rose reached out a finger to wipe it off and was rewarded with a smile.

"Mum." Rose interrupted Pete's present opening.

"What?"

"Jess just smiled at me."

"What?"

"Jess just smiled at me."

"Really?" Pete asked.

"Yes. Jess just smiled at me."

Pete and Jackie's faces lit up and Rose handed Jess to Pete so she could move to curl up on Mickey's other side. They watched, laughing at the attempts to get Jess to smile again. At half past seven, three hours of presents and laughter, later Rose put the TV on.

"Rose, it's Christmas." Jake told her.

"And?"

"You have the TV on."

"I know."

"Why?"

"EastEnders." Jake groaned and Mickey patted his head sympathetically.

"Gotta get used to that, mate. I'll warn you now, she's grouchy if she doesn't see it." Rose grinned to herself and heard a shriek of the giggles from Jess's room.

"She smiled! Rose, Mickey, Jake! She smiled!"

"It's the EastEnders' theme tune, Mum. She'll be like me!"

_If you could see this now, Doctor. You've changed our lives…  
_

At eleven-thirty, Jackie had become a bit over-the-top with the alcohol.

"It's conga time." Mickey muttered to Jake, and Rose had to stifle her laugh.

Half an hour later, she'd crashed, and Pete, rolling his eyes, picked her up and carried her into their bedroom.

"And I'm following suit. Might get called into work tomorrow, so I'd best be off." Rose stretched, gave Mickey and Jake hugs and picked up her presents.

"Tomorrow?" Pete asked from his room.

"Yeah, sorry. Lucky I didn't today, actually."

"Someone's beginning to fly high, eh?"

"Well, you know. Your useless genes." She retorted as she wandered up the stairs.

In her room, Rose put her new clothes from Pete into her wardrobe, her new undies from Jake ("Don't go getting any ideas, you know where my interests lie," he'd told her) in her drawer, and the teddy from Jess on her bed. She sorted out some of her other presents, the others from her family and from some of her friends, before finding the wooden photo frame.

She sat down on her bed, and examined the picture. It was of her and the Doctor as they'd watched the telly last Christmas in the flat. They'd still got their party hats on, she was leaning on him, and he had his arm around her shoulders. She remembered that. He'd leant his head on hers once or twice, when he'd felt the need to, and just before she'd got up for bed, he'd kissed the top of her head, and she'd tried to hide her grin, but failed.

Rose didn't hesitate. She placed it, still in its frame, on her bedside table.

II

Friday The Eighth Of May 2009

Rose got up later that evening, at nine thirty, and as she usually did, glanced at the picture on her bedside table, and smiled. She wandered into the hall and down the stairs slightly bleary-eyed into the kitchen.

"Mum, any coffee going?"

"Some in the pot, love."

"Thanks."

"You're up late, how're you feeling today?"

"Oh, you know, as normal as any other twenty three-year-old Torchwood branch manager. Few added pangs and twinges, of course, but I'm fine."

"Roooose!" a voice sounded in the hallway outside.

"Here comes trouble." Rose told her mother. "Has she eaten yet?"

"Rooose."

"Not yet, just doing it. When have you got to be in work today?"

"Not going in. Gonna work at home today, get a bit of a long weekend."

"Can you look after Jess for an hour at about twelve-ish?"

"'Course I can. Where you off?"

"Rose!"

"Kitchen, sweetheart." Rose and Jackie called, simultaneously.

A small figure in pink, with dark brown curls and brown eyes to match, walked into the kitchen and held her arms up to Rose. Obligingly, Rose sat her on her lap, absent-mindedly playing with her hair.

"I'm meeting your Dad at the shopping centre. Some stuff to get." Jackie placed Jess's food on the table, who launched for it immediately. "She's just like you were, you know."

"Yes, you've told me a few times. Jess." Rose replied, holding back Jess, who continued struggling and grabbing. "Jessica Eve. Calm yourself." Rose warned again. Jess calmed instantly. "Good girl. Calm down."

"You'd make a good mum." Jackie told Rose, who laughed, as she cut up Jess's toast for her.

"Me? Shop-girl turned Ex-companion to the last of the Time Lords, assistant manager of London's Torchwood?"

"Course you would."

"I don't see how."

"Well, you're good with Jess. You can look after her, and let's face it, Rose, you ain't thick."

"I s'pose. The only men in my life so far are either gay, ugly, taken or my dad, or so it's not gonna happen any time soon."

"No one you like at the moment?"

"Nah, there're only all these pathetic creeps who hang around me. Not interested unless it's someone special."

"Jacks!"

"Bloody hell, never a moment's peace in this place. What do you want?" Pete entered, interrupting as he often did.

"We need to go out now. I need to pop into work for ten minutes."

"Can't you come back for me?"

"No time, get shifting." Jackie rolled her eyes at him as he dashed off.

"Dunno what's gotten into him. Can you mind Jess now?"

"Course."

"Thanks, I hope she doesn't interrupt your work too much."

"She'll be fine. Now, you heard the man, get shifting."

"Oi, watch it, you, I'm still your mother, you know, even if I have got him and her to look after." Rose grinned and Jackie left the kitchen.

"Looks like it's just you and me." Rose said to her sister, who nodded. "Good, eh?"

At eleven, Rose jumped as the phone rang next to her, and Jess looked up from her kitchen set, intrigued.

"Curiosity killed the cat, Jess." The child in question simply added confusion to the look on her face and watched as Rose answered the phone. "Rose Tyler."

"Oh, um, hi."

"Hi, Gwen, what can I do for you? I'm not needed in again, am I?"

"No, no, it isn't that. There's a man at the desk for you."

"Right, can you tell him I won't be in until Monday?"

"Well, I have done, but he's very insistent that he speaks to Rose Tyler."

"Do I know him?"

"He won't give a name. Just says he has to speak to you."

"What's he like?"

"Well, um. He's tall, dark-haired. Full of himself. Am-"

"Send him over. Give him my address."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I know who he is. I've got to speak to him too. Give him the address, and directions if he needs them."

"Oh, okay then. Bye!"

"Bye, Gwen."

Rose caught her breath as she put the phone down. Jess was still watching her, so Rose picked her up and gave her a reassuring hug.

"I'm okay, Jess, it's fine. At least, I hope it will be."

An hour later, Rose had got no further with her work, due to nervous clock glancing. For one, she'd expected her mum and dad to be back by now, but on second thoughts, with Jackie's shopping habits, especially when the prices here were half of those in the other London…

The doorbell rang. Maybe this was them. But they wouldn't ring at their own front door, surely? Jess shot up and ran to the door as fast as she could and started shouting,

"Rose! Rose! Door!"

"I know, I'm coming." Scooping up Jess and holding her against her side, Rose took a deep breath and opened the door as confidently as she could.

"Rose."

"Jack. Oh my God, Jack." Rose threw her free arm around the man and hugged him for dear life, burying her head into his shoulder, and he hugged her back just as hard as she hugged him. "Oh my God, you have no idea how much I've missed you."

"I have, believe me, you wouldn't understand how much I've missed you."

She released him, took him by the hand and pulled him into the house. "Nosy neighbours." She added. Jess, taking a liking to the strange man, struggled out of Rose's arms and threw herself at him, Jack catching her at the last minute.

"She yours?" Jack asked Rose.

"Mine?" Rose spluttered.

"Yeah. You look the perfect domestic goddess. Completely different from when I last saw you, though."

"Well, no, she's my mum's. I baby-sit whilst my Mum shops. Jess is my little sister.

"Oh, right… None of your own yet then?"

"My own? Not last time I checked. I'd probably have killed them by now."

Jack followed Rose into the living room and put Jess on the settee next to him as he sat down. She beamed at him, he grinned back and she wriggled off and went back to her kitchen.

"Sorry about that, she's a pretty confident toddler."

"Ah, it's okay."

"Are you okay, though? You seem… not your usual self. Oh my God, I never thought. Are you actually my Jack or … like, the alternate one?"

"No, I'm the same Jack."

"You sure?"

"Yes. Very. I think. With added stress and fewer Doctors and Roses."

The shock began to settle in Rose's mind properly.

"You were - and then I was - and then he -… how the hell did you get through to here?"

"Could ask you the same thing."

"Long story."

"Long time."

The door gave a loud slam.

"Rose! We're back!"

"Not likely." Rose muttered to Jack. "Hi, Mum!"

"Still living with Mum?" Jack muttered back.

"Yeah. And Dad. Come on."

"Dad? But I thought-?"

"Long story, no time. Yet."

II

Saturday The Ninth Of May 2009.

It happened that Jackie took a liking to Jack, and didn't leave him alone until he decided it was bedtime at half-past midnight, and even then he had a struggle. Rose had left for bed half an hour earlier, and she put down the diary as she heard Jack come in.

"Sorry. Mum's a bit like that, especially when she's had a bit."

"I was more worried about your dad actually."

"That's not like you."

Jack laughed.

"And she's your mum."

"We know what she's like. She won't mention it in the morning if you don't."

"Good. So d'you want to tell me how you got here now?"

"It's quarter to one."

"But you're still up."

"So?"

" I think you were waiting for me to come."

"That'd boost your ego a bit."

"But it'd be true."

"I suppose."

"Oh come on, Rose. You gave that up a bit easily." Rose was silent. "So go on. Tell me."

"You tell me first. The Doctor closed all the breaches, why are you here?"

"We learned to close them too."

"How on Earth do you do that without dragging Cybermen and Daleks through after you?"

"You have to be fast. And, well… they've gone to sleep in the void anyway." Rose was momentarily stunned. "You're staring at me."

"Sleep?"

"Yeah. Realised that the Doctor had probably done it for good now, so they just thought they'd ride it out. Well. I'm guessing, but they looked dead to the world to me. So. Your tale."

"Where do I start?"

"Satellite Five. The GameStation, whatever, the Doctor sent you away."

"And I came back."

"You are so stubborn."

"Let me tell the story."

"Sorry."

"I only remembered a little while ago. The Doctor told me. I think he thought I deserved to know. Well, no, I know he thought I deserved to know. He used the telepathic connection he's got, you know?"

"I've read."

"Well, he basically just told me everything. Showed me all his memories. They killed you. He heard it. But then he got faced with the Daleks and couldn't do anything about it. Can't raise people from the dead, of course."

"No."

"Except me."

"What?"

"I looked into the heart of the TARDIS, right? You remember us seeing Bad Wolf everywhere? I was Bad Wolf."

"Are you kidding me?"

"No, I'm not. I saved you and I saved him, and then I nearly died. We left because we had to. I was out of it, to be honest, but I don't think he knew what I'd – Bad Wolf had – done, and if he did, I don't think he did it out of spite. Maybe he knew it would wreck your timeline and… I don't know. He died to save me, you know. Does that make any sense at all?"

"Regeneration. I read notes on him at Torchwood."

"Where?"

"Torchwood, I worked there in Cardiff for a while."

"Ever go to the London one?"

"A couple of times."

"Yeah, I went once too. I never want to go back there again. Well, if I could."

"What happened?"

"That's where it all ended."

"I read reports of something. I didn't really understand how it finished, though."

"You wouldn't. Who would be left to write a report on how it finished? They're all floating around in the void, or dead, by now."

"The Cybermen?"

"And the Daleks."

"So tell me."

"Well, we adventured for a while. New Earth, werewolves, the Coronation, black holes, this place, where Mickey wanted to stay to replace his double when he died, you know, the usual sort of stuff. God, Jack, I missed you."

"I know. I missed you too."

"Sorry. Anyway, we went to visit Mum and found these ghosts. Ended up at Torchwood, Yvonne Hartman managed to get her prize."

"She was like that. "For the good of the British Empire"."

"Exactly. The Doctor met this Pete. The Pete from this world. So, the Doctor came up with a plan to get rid of the Daleks and Cybermen, by opening the breach and sucking them in. He tried to send me away again, with Mum, and Dad and Mickey and Jake, but I came back before he closed the breach again."

"Stubborn."

"Jack, I could hardly leave him, could I? He was angry, at least for a while. Couldn't get rid of me that easily."

"I doubt he really wanted to. Just trying to make you safe."

"I know. Still, we tried to open the breach again, for the plan. He had these things for us to hang onto, which were attached to the wall. My breach-lever slipped, so I reached for it, letting go of the wall-things. I just couldn't hold on to the lever. Dad managed to grab me as I fell. My God, his scream. I'll never forget it."

"Oh my God." Jack wrapped his arms around her, and whispered the next bit. "Have you seen him since?"

"Once. Jack, I couldn't even touch him. I told him I loved him."

"What did he say back?"

" 'Quite right too.' and then my name. He never got to finish the rest of the sentence.

"I think I know what he was going to say."

"So do I." She turned her head to look at him. The next minute, his lips were on hers, and she wasn't complaining or attempting to stop him or doing anything of the sort. After a few moments, she pulled away and spoke.

"Jack, I can't love you like him."

"I know. I don't want you to."

II

Saturday The Ninth Of May 2009.

Rose woke up and rolled over, expecting to find an empty space next to her, but instead, her arm connected with a body and she opened her eyes suddenly to see Jack.

"What time is it?"

"Morning to you too."

"Sorry. Morning."

"Time's quarter to twelve.

"You're joking."

"Nope."

Rose shot out of bed, grabbed her towel and ran for the door.

"Oh fuck, what have I done?"

"What?"

"Oh shit." She ran back again, flung open her wardrobe and started rifling through it to find something decent to wear. "Where the hell does everything go in this place?"

"Rose."

"Jess." She stormed out of her room. "JESSICA." Jack followed at a sprint.

"Rose. Get back in that bedroom." He stopped her on the landing.

"Why? What're you gonna do? Leave?"

"Rose."

"What!"

"Rose, how –?"

"Jack, this is you. You stayed overnight, but how much longer will you stay?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I love him. I love you too, but I love you both differently. I don't know how you handle that. You know that, Jack, and you'd handle it better than any other guy that I could possibly meet, but… You don't stop and hang around. You don't stop and make a life with anyone. You don't settle down. You never have, you never will. Even if it is me."

"Exactly, Rose, this is you. We've been through so much together. I'm not gonna swan off after a snog and a night - fully-clothed - in your room, and especially not after what we talked about last night."

"Jack. You don't settle. You never can stay in one place for long."

"I can try. I don't want to leave you by yourself again."

"But you won't manage it."

"How do you know? I managed Torchwood."

"We'll travel. Bet you haven't seen much of this world."

"No, that's true." She pressed her lips against his. "We'll give it a go, eh?"

"Yeah."

There was a wolf whistle from downstairs in the hallway and Rose looked down over the banister. Mickey grinned up at her,

"Fast mover, eh, Rose?"

Rose turned her head back.

"Shit."

II

Tuesday The Twentieth Of September 2016.

"Jack!"

Rose headed up the stairs.

"Jack!"

"What?"

"Stop messing around and get downstairs. I can't put up banners by myself."

"Yes, miss."

"You're a useless dad. You set such a bad example."

"But you still love me."

"Of course. But you get no hugs and no kisses until get your bum downstairs and get those banners up."

"Slave-driver."

"But don't you just love it?"

"'Course. Especially in the – "

"Behave. Banners for your son's fifth birthday party. Downstairs. Now."

"I'm going, I'm going."

"Good. And I want to see at least two up by the time I get down there."

"Okay, okay."

Rose grinned and sat down on the floor next to her son. She ruffled his dark hair and smiled at him.

"You're quiet today."

"Sleepy."

"You sure that's it? Daddy's not been winding you up again?"

Alfie grinned Jack's grin and looked up from his Lego model.

"Nah. I was thinking. He was telling me about an old friend of yours."

"Really?"

"The Doctor."

"Yes. I thought he might."

"I thought he was telling me one of his stories, with all the aliens and planets and things."

"You believed him, though? 'Cause those stories – well, most of them – are true. I've been there."

"'Course. I'd believe you and Daddy over anything. If you ever manage to find the Doctor again, I'd like to meet him too."

"Yeah. I'd like you to meet him. I'd like him to meet you. He'd love you, I'm sure. You'd make the perfect companion."

"Really?"

"Really." Alfie grinned and Rose kissed him on his forehead. "I'll show you a picture, if you like."

"Cool!"

"Shall we go downstairs, and you can help Daddy while I go and fetch it?"

"Yep."

II

In the afternoon, Rose dashed around the kitchen as her son played "pass the parcel" with his friends and his nine-year-old aunt in the living room.

"Rose, what are you doing?" A voice interrupted. She span round.

"Dad."

"You should be in there."

"Can't. Still got food to prepare."

"Me and your mum can do that."

"It's okay, I know all the plans."

"So do we."

"No, no. I'll do it."

"Rose, what is it?"

"How'd you mean?"

"Something's bothering you. Is it the Doctor?"

"He's part of it, yes. I don't know, I just… Jack told Alfie about him. And it got me thinking on how much we'd changed, and what he would think of me and Jack."

"I think he'd be happy that you'd moved on. Jack understands you more than anyone else in this universe could."

"I thought so too. But then I thought how much Alfie would enjoy his company. He's just the kind of person Alfie would love, and I know the Doctor would love him too, and it's still impossible to think he won't have that chance. I know it's silly."

"It isn't silly at all. But the best thing you can do now, is go out there and … mingle. One or two parents are still here and are becoming a bit scared by Jack." Rose laughed.

"Kay. I'll see you in a bit."

In the living room, Rose wandered in and found Jack. Alfie and his friends were still involved with "pass the parcel". Jack wrapped his arms round her waist as she began to speak to a mother she'd never spoken to properly before. She wished she hadn't bothered halfway through.

"So you're not actually married?"

"No. He's Harkness and I'm Tyler."

"And you have a son."

"Yes. Alfie. On the floor with his friends."

"Out of wedlock."

"Yes."

"Don't your parents mind?"

"Not at all. They wouldn't be here today if they did."

"Oh, are they here? I hadn't noticed."

"My Dad's helping to do the food in the kitchen. We were a bit late starting one or two things."

"So, your son. Alfie?"

"Yes."

"Is he a Harkness or a Tyler?"

"Both, obviously, but he uses Harkness."

"Why is that? Surely it makes more sense for him to take your surname rather than his dad's."

"Why does it? Personally, I don't think it matters. I use it sometimes."

"We just decided, really. Didn't have a reason, just … agreed." Jack added in.

"Oh. Why aren't you married anyway? Surely a son is all the more reason to get married?"

"It's a longer and more complicated story than you could ever imagine." Rose threw in before Jack had a chance to say more, unravelled herself from his arms and dragged him away. "Be careful. She won't ever believe you if you had a hundred days to attempt explain, so I wouldn't bother trying. It's not like she cares anyway. It's just an opportunity to look down her nose at us."

"Don't you just want to tell people though? Tell them that technically, we don't belong here, and we're the only people to have travelled in space in a time machine and tell them that life is fine just the way it is?"

"No. It's none of their business. We'll live our life the way we want it. You know I love you, I know you love me. We don't have him but we do have Alfie. No one else but Alfie matters. They don't matter."

II

Tuesday The Twentieth Of September 2016.

In bed, Rose laid her head on Jack's shoulder as he was beginning to drift off, and poked him in the ribs.

"What?"

"I was thinking."

"Ouch."

"Oi."

Jack laughed.

"I was just wondering what the Doctor would make of this."

"I think that sometimes."

"I think about it often."

"I think about it more."

"I think not."

"I think so."

"I think not. Seriously, though, what do you think he'd think? He told me to move on, but I don't think he quite expected you to find me."

"I think he'd be happy enough. He finds someone to live a life – or two - with, you find someone to live a life with, just one though, and I find someone to live a life with. The last two just happen to be the other person."

"But a kid, with you? I don't think it's something he could see happening."

"No, maybe not, I wasn't the type for a normal, "settling down" relationship, I'm still not. That's why we go away so much. And besides, we're not exactly normal, I don't think you can be when you work at a place like Torchwood."

"You don't think he'd mind?"

"Personally, I think he'd think for a minute, and then realise that you still love him, even though you're with me, and I'm the best person for you. I can imagine what it's like for you, more than any regular guy on this planet. They wouldn't be able to get their heads round why you won't marry, unlike me."

"You're so full of it."

"But it's true."

"Yes. And the Doctor would love Alfie."

"Just because Alfie has a brain like his. I know we've said it before, but where the hell does he get it from?"

"No idea." Rose smiled at him, and kissed him before switching the light off.

II   


Thursday The Twenty-Fourth Of December 2069  


When he walked in, it was an ordinary hospital, just like he'd expected. It was a lot cleaner than the ones had been earlier that century, a lot fresher and whiter, but he knew that things hadn't advanced far enough to have found many new cures, one or two for a couple of different types of cancer. There had been one in 2013 by Cancer Research and one in 2045, but nothing much more than that.

He'd addressed a nurse, and took a short journey up a couple of floors to the ward he'd been directed to. It didn't take him long to find the right place, and as he was investigating, a man came into the room and walked straight into him.

"I'm sorry, just in a bit of a hurry."

"It's fine, no problem."

"Hold on a minute, let me look? … Don't I recognise you?"

"Well, I can safely say we've never met before."

"No, but I've seen – You're him."

"Uh?"

"The Doctor. You're the Doctor. My mum and dad told me so much about you. I've seen your picture, Mum showed me one from the Christmas you spent on Earth."

"You'd be Rose's son?"

"Yeah, I'm Alfie Harkness."

"Harkness? As in Jack?"

"Yeah."

"Rose married Jack?"

"They never married."

"They didn't?"

"No. Neither of them really explained it to me, but I didn't ask. They weren't married, and I didn't think anything of it. She couldn't marry Dad when she still loved you."

"And he understood. He'd understand more than anyone else on the planet would."

"Exactly."

"I should have guessed. You look like him."

The Doctor and Alfie remained silent for a few minutes, sitting on chairs, just thinking. After a while, the Doctor spoke again.

"What about Jack, then?"

"Dad died a year or so ago. I can't imagine quite how hard it was to cope with losing you and then losing the one who truly understood."

"No…"

Another silence fell.

"Is it just you or do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"Just me. But there is my aunt. She's four years older than me."

"Oh, but of course! It's strange, what can happen when you miss so many years of someone's life. What's your aunt's name?"

"Jess. She was born in the November after you last saw Mum."

"I bet Rose adored her."

"Yeah, they're very close. Well… Mum doesn't really… communicate properly any more."

"How d'you mean?"

"She's had a stroke. That's why she's here. I think the loss of Dad didn't help much. She revisits things, moments, if you like. D'you want to go in, talk to her? If she realises who it is, she might…"

Without hesitating, the Doctor nodded.

"Is it okay to?"

"Yeah, course. Just go in." Alfie pointed to the room where Rose was.

"Thanks. I won't be long."

"Take as long as you need, I'll still be here.

"Thanks." The Doctor gave a brief smile, opened the door and entered the room.

She was already sitting up, but didn't show a sign of seeing him.

He pulled up a chair next to her bed and took her hand.

"Guess who. Got here as soon as I could."

She didn't reply, but pulled her hand free, and began to fumble in the bed sheets, looking for something. After a second or two, she appeared to have found it, and holding nothing, mimed placing a key into a lock.

"What are you doing?"

"Opening the TARDIS, what does it look like?" she replied. "If you stopped kissing me and put me down, you could open it."

"Rose we're not – "

"Don't start getting defensive with me, you know I'm right."

The Doctor was quiet. This wasn't right, Rose didn't deserve to be cooped up in here. She was more than that. But she seemed content enough when he spoke to her, so he continued.

"Yeah, you're right. But seeing as you've got your key in now, you might as well open the door the rest of the way."

Rose laughed and pushed at the air, pulling the "key" out of the door after her.

"Your room or mine?" she asked.

"Yours." He told her, remembering this memory and how it ran.

"It was mine last time!"

"Yours is closer. Unless… you'd prefer to stop here."

"We've done that once. The console room floor is not the most comfortable of places."

The Doctor was about to make a reply when a machine gave an unhappy beep. He shot around and looked at the offending machine. He knew enough about medicine to know that that wasn't a good noise to be hearing. He snapped his eyes back to Rose and saw her eyes shut and the next second; a nurse had dived into the room, followed in quick succession by Alfie.

For twenty minutes, the Doctor and Alfie sat outside, waiting for news, but it felt like a lifetime. When the nurse came out, the Doctor didn't wait for her to say anything, before walking into the room she had just left and to Rose's bed. He leant over her and kissed her forehead.

"I love you, Rose."

And for the last time, the last of the Time Lords walked away


End file.
